Will I Lose My Unemployment Benefits?By Admin

March 29, 2010

“Yeah, that job sounds like a good one but if I take it, it’ll hurt my unemployment benefits so I’m gonna have to pass, thanks anyway.”

What’s wrong with this picture? People are turning down good, well paying, permanent job opportunities for fear of loosing their unemployment benefits. There are jobs out there but the people just won’t accept them. Is this an example of a system gone wrong? Is this really what’s happening in the employment market because of the extended unemployment benefits?

I thought extending unemployment was a way to protect those hurt most from the collapse of our economy. I was led to believe that the extensions were meant to be short term fixes to keep the economy solvent while preventing deep financial hardships for those employees victimized by the economic turbulence. But when it is time to put our foot down and say move on?

Has our unemployment system, which was established as a short term fix, become another long term entitlement? When do we say no more? How many jobs need to go unfilled before us as taxpayers say enough is enough?

The financial security of this new entitlement has perpetuated fear, insecurity, loss of confidence and an inability to take appropriate risks to our unemployed. The fear of “loosing their benefits” overwhelms the risk of taking on a new job opportunity. What does it need to take to bring our unemployed back into the work force? Different jobs? Bigger paychecks? Better benefits? Great workplaces? I think not. It’s far safer to rely on unemployment benefits than to begin a new career. It’s much safer to lean on the government than it is to stand on their own two feet.

“I am for doing well to the poor, but…I think the best way of doing well to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. I observed…that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.”

That is so true! I Understand that alot of people have been let go from jobs that would not have been if the companies didn’t have to cut back and there are some personal reasons that can’t be prevented that end jobs for a period of time as well, but unemployment is SHORT TERM…not a career path. If you have no reason to rush back to work….what’s the point of leaving the couch. It’s soft and welcoming, while the work world is so much work. It’s easy to become really lazy and expect everyone else to solve your problems when you have no reason to put in the effort. There always has to be a limit …and it needs to be a reasonable one. But who makes the rules? Something needs to change or we will never end this mess that we are in now. I earn my paycheck. It would be nice if everyone else that was able, did too.